Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its market attracts 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year — and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets — not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is second to consumer buying. Chinese retail(零售) buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping — big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how wide the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.
Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in .
A.its low price |
B.its big size |
C.its not charging small sellers |
D.its business-to-business service |
What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the passage?
A.Alibaba will continue to develop. |
B.Alibaba stands out as the best online site. |
C.Alibaba acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers. |
D.Alibaba is of middle size among all the online sites. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
A.TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao. |
B.The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover. |
C.Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites. |
D.Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail. |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.Shopping online in China is TaoBao. |
B.How the author purchases online in China. |
C.Shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping. |
D.Alibaba influences people’s daily purchase in China. |
“If it rings one more time, I’ll hang up,” Amy thought hopefully, as she waited for someone to answer. Apologizing wasn’t an easy thing to do.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said. There was no backing out now.
“May I speak to Missy, please?”
“Just a minute.”
In much less than a minute, Missy was on the phone. “Hi, who’s calling?” asked the cheerful voice.
“It’s Amy. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry about what I said to you. I didn’t really mean it.” Amy paused, trying to think of what to say next.
“Thank you, Amy. No hard feelings.”
“Missy, you’re a very nice person. You’re a lot nicer than I am!”
Missy laughed. “You’re not so bad, Amy. By the way, I’ve got some great news. Mr. Grumbell said that you were the only candidate for class president. He talked me into being a candidate too. Isn’t that cool?”
Amy didn’t think the news was cool. Missy was very popular; she’d get a lot of votes. Fortunately, Amy was in a gracious mood. “You’ll be a tough opponent, Missy,” she said. “May the best woman win.” “Thanks, Amy,” Missy replied. “But you might even win.”
Amy had to laugh. “Hey, I’m the one who’s supposed to make comments like that!” Amy called Missy on the phone to _______.
A.tell her that the Titanic sank | B.tell her she needed a brain |
C.apologize for insulting her | D.ask her to run for president |
Amy was hoping that no one would answer the phone because _______.
A.she was too tired to talk |
B.she felt uncomfortable about apologizing |
C.she was afraid she had dialed the wrong number |
D.she was wearing pajamas |
If one of the following statements is true, which is it?
A.Missy was home alone. |
B.Missy’s mother answered the phone. |
C.Missy’s father answered the phone. |
D.Missy’s little sister answered the phone. |
Which word best describes the girls’ conversation?
A.Nasty. | B.Uncomfortable. |
C.Sad. | D.Friendly. |
Missy let Amy know that she wanted something that Amy wanted. What was it?
A.She wanted to have the most friends. |
B.She wanted her own telephone. |
C.She wanted mushrooms on her pizza. |
D.She wanted to be class president. |
An important question about eating out is who pays for the meal. If a friend of yours asks you to have lunch with him. You may say something like this, “I’m afraid it’ll have to be some place cheap, as I have very little money.” The other person may say, “OK, I’ll meet you at McDonald’s.” This means that two agree to go Dutch, that is, each person pays for himself. He may also say, “Oh, no. I want to take you to lunch at Johnson’s”, or “I want you to try the steak(牛排) there. It’s great.” This means the person wants to pay for both of you. If you feel friendly towards this person, you can go with him and you needn’t pay for the meal. You may just say, “Thank you. That would be very nice.”
American customs about who pays for dates(约会) are much the same as in other parts of the world. In the old days, American women wanted men to pay for all the meals. But, today, a university girl or a woman in the business world will usually pay her own way during the day. If a man asks her to dinner or a dance outside the working hours, it means “come as my guest”. So as you can see, it is a polite thing to make the question clear at the very beginning. In the old days _______ often paid for all the meals.
A.women | B.men |
C.university students | D.businessmen |
“To go Dutch” means to _______.
A.go to play outside | B.eat out |
C.pay for oneself | D.go to a cheaper eating place |
“McDonald’s” here means _______.
A.a tea house | B.a gate |
C.an office | D.an eating place |
If you feel friendly to the person, _______.
A.you should pay for him | B.you needn’t pay for him |
C.you can accept his invitation | D.you can’t accept his invitation |
We’d better know who will pay for the meal _______.
A.at the beginning | B.at the end |
C.in the middle of the meal | D.after drinking |
Any mistake made in the printing of a stamp raises its value to stamp collectors. A mistake on one inexpensive postage stamp has made the stamp worth a million and a half times its original value.
The mistake was made more than a hundred years ago in the British colony of Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1847 an order for stamps was sent to a London printer — Mauritius was to become the fourth country in the world to issue stamps.
Before the order was filled and delivered, a ball was planned at Mauritius’ Government House, and stamps were needed to send out the invitations. A local printer was instructed to copy the design for the stamps. He accidentally inscribed the words “Post Office” instead of “Post Paid” on the several hundred stamps that he printed.
Today there are only twenty-six of these misprinted stamps left fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds and twelve Two Penny Blues. Because of the Two Penny Blue’s rareness and age, collectors have paid as much as $16 800 for it.Over a century ago, Mauritius _______.
A.was an independent country |
B.belonged to India |
C.was one of the British colonies |
D.was a small island in the Pacific Ocean |
The mistake on the stamps was made _______.
A.in Mauritius | B.at Mauritius Government House |
C.in a post office | D.in London |
Stamp collectors have paid 16 800 for _______.
A.fourteen One Penny Orange-Reds |
B.twelve Two Penny Blues |
C.one One Penny Orange-Red |
D.one Two Penny Blue |
Before the early 1960’s people interested in the differing roles of the left and right hemispheres(半球) of the brain depended almost entirely on facts drawn from animal research, form studies of patients with one-sided brain damage. But it was possible to find out which brain hemisphere was most involved in speech and other functions in normal people by having them listen to two different words coming to the two ears at the same time. This became known as the “dichotic listening” procedure. When several word pairs are given in a row, people are unable to report them all, and most right-handers prefer to report, and report more correctly, words given to their right ears. This seems to be related to the fact that signals from the right ear, although sent to both hemispheres, are better sent to the left hemisphere which controls speech. People who have speech represented(回忆) in the right hemisphere, a very unusual occurrence even in left-handed people, more correctly report what their left ears hear.
In contrast to the right-ear advantage for speech, there is generally a left-ear advantage for another type of auditory(听觉的) signal: music. When right-handed people listen to melodic patterns they report them better from the left ear.Which of the following would be the most proper title for the passage?
A.An Introduction to Speech Damage in Patients with Brain Damage. |
B.An Investigation into the Role of the Brain’s Hemispheres. |
C.An Analysis of Left and Right-handed People. |
D.An Examination of “Dichotic Listening”. |
The “dichotic listening” procedure could best be described as hearing _______.
A.two different words in the same ear twice |
B.the same word twice in the same ear |
C.two different words in different ears |
D.two different words twice in two ears |
according to the passage, right-handed people normally _______.
A.have better hearing in their both ears |
B.have little difficulty in reporting words given to their right ears |
C.are unable to report word pairs given to their left ears |
D.correctly report word pairs given in a row |
according to the passage, music is best appreciated when heard by _______.
A.the left ear of right-handers |
B.people with a left-ear advantage |
C.left-handers in their right ears |
D.right-handed people who understand melodic patterns |
“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school football coach Bob Peters, 39. Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” -a document(文件) stating that for 70 days this summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores(杂务). Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.)
After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, completely humbled, ” admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press(also part of the bargain), stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.”
Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids.
Then two years ago Pat went back to work as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs(叹气), “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however-until Bob signed the contract, whereupon she decided to relax and enjoy it.
Although Peters had consulted(咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria(食堂), his meals were sometimes a disaster. “I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner.
As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “I found an easier way-I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”
Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely(日常地) sharing the child-raising and household tasks with Pat. The tentative(暂定的) title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day.The couple signed the contract because _______.
A.Pat complained a lot about her doing the housework all by herself |
B.Bob loved taking care of children and wanted his wife to have a good rest |
C.they agreed that husband and wife should share household tasks |
D.Bob thought it easy to take care of the family and wanted the experience for a book |
It was agreed that if Bob failed to keep to the contract, he would have to _______.
A.pay a certain amount of money |
B.do all the housework for years |
C.say sorry to his wife |
D.admit publicly he was wrong about motherhood |
What can we learn about Pat Peters?
A.She was hard-working and selfless. |
B.She was pretty and kind-hearted. |
C.She was tired of the child-raising and household tasks. |
D.She did not love Bob any longer. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A.Bob managed to keep the kids’clothes clean. |
B.Bob tried to cook good meals for his children. |
C.Bob frequently took the kids out to eat because he was too busy at work. |
D.Bob taught the kids to make their beds every day. |
Which of the following can best end the news story?
A.“My experience of being a mother.” |
B.“I’m proud of you all, my dear!” |
C.“Wait till your mother gets home!” |
D.“Motherhood: an impossible job for anyone.” |